Summary
Here’s a round-up of this evening’s Covid-19 news.
- The UK government reported its lowest new case figures for more than a month on Saturday, with 72,727 infections. The figures don’t include Scotland’s case numbers, as figures for new positive PCR cases are not available at the weekend.
- Chile has broken its record for daily cases for the fourth day in a row, with more than 29,000 confirmed in the last 24 hours.
- Ukraine has marked the 100,000th person to die from Covid-19 in the country since the start of the pandemic.
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Turkey’s health minister Fahrettin Koca said the worst of the pandemic was over, despite the country joining others in breaking its daily case record on Saturday. A total of 94,783 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours.
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Italy reported 137,147 new cases on Saturday.
- Some schools in the UK have reintroduced mask wearing in classrooms, in the same week where the government dropped it as part of its official rules.
- France has reported 332,398 new Covid-19 cases, the fifth day in a row the figures have fallen.
- Former US presidential candidate Mitt Romney is isolating after testing positive for Covid-19.
- Another 522 people have died from Covid-19 in Mexico, Reuters reports. It means that 305,762 have died from the virus during the pandemic.
Updated
Another 522 people have died from Covid-19 in Mexico, Reuters reports.
It means that 305,762 have died from the virus during the pandemic. The country’s health ministry also reported 42,582 new cases, meaning more than 4.9 million people have tested positive for the virus since March 2020.
Former US presidential candidate Mitt Romney is isolating after testing positive for Covid-19.
The Utah senator, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, is working remotely. His wife, Ann, has tested negative, Associated Press reports.
Romney, 74, unsuccessfully ran against Barack Obama in 2012.
France has reported 332,398 new Covid-19 cases, the fifth day in a row the figures have fallen. The number of patients in intensive care with Covid also dropped by 22.
Another 178 people have died, as the country’s overall death toll stands at more than 130,000.
Updated
Some schools in the UK that stopped mask wearing in classrooms have reintroduced it because of a rise in Covid cases.
Updated
The Metropolitan police’s investigation into parties in Downing Street during Covid-19 lockdowns could “neuter” the inquiry and report being put together by senior civil servant Sue Gray in the eyes of some.
The Observer’s Mark Townsend has more:
Unmesh Desai recalls feeling righteous frustration as he sat opposite the head of the Metropolitan police on Tuesday morning. For months Cressida Dick’s force had refused to investigate what appeared to be unambiguous breaches of Covid regulations at Downing Street. “The perception is that you’re covering for those in power,” Desai told the commissioner.
Arms folded, Dick leant towards those assembled for the Greater London authority police and crime committee meeting in Southwark and responded: “We police without fear or favour.”
Moments later, at 10.08am, Dick dropped the bombshell that sent shock waves thundering a mile west to Downing Street and nearby parliament. Desai felt the room go quiet, with others clearly sharing his “total surprise,” at the commissioner’s revelation.
Read more:
Updated
Italy reported 137,147 new coronavirus cases on Saturday.
The figure represents a drop compared with Friday, where 143,898 were recorded by its health ministry.
Its death toll stands as the second worst in Europe after the UK, with 145,914 deaths during the pandemic. Another 377 new deaths were registered on Saturday, one less than a day before.
Updated
Turkey’s health minister said the worst of the pandemic was over, despite the country joining others in breaking its daily Covid case record on Saturday.
Fahrettin Koca said that despite rising case figures, the illness caused by Covid is less severe and would reduce the impact of the virus. A total of 94,783 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours.
In comments reported by Reuters, he said: “The rise we see in case numbers should not be seen as disheartening. The virus is not at its old strength. The worrying part of the pandemic is over.”
Its health ministry reported the death toll rose by 174.
Updated
Ukraine has marked the 100,000th person to die from Covid-19 in the country since the start of the pandemic.
The country confirmed 149 more deaths on Saturday, meaning that 100,031 people have died with coronavirus.
The Kyiv Post – the country’s English language news website – said that while case numbers have remained high during a wave of infections caused by the Omicron variant, death numbers have tailed off due to vaccinations.
Four times in the last week, it has broken daily Covid case records, with 37,351 reported on Saturday. However the total number of deaths, 825, is lower than that of its highest number of deaths to take place on one day, 848, set in November 2021.
Updated
Chile breaks daily coronavirus case record for fourth day
Chile has broken its record for daily Covid cases, with more than 29,000 confirmed in the last 24 hours.
Its the fourth day in a row that the country has broken its highest one-day number of new cases. The government’s reporting dashboard showed that nearly 100,000 people are confirmed to have the virus, with 33 people dying in the last 24 hours.
Informe Diario #COVID_19 - 29 de enero
— Ministerio de Salud (@ministeriosalud) January 29, 2022
🔸 29.175 casos nuevos
🔸 99.474 casos activos
🔸 33 fallecidos registrados (39.653 en total)
🔸 20,18% positividad nacional
🔸 132.299 exámenes 24 hrs (29.689.847 en total)
🔸 305 camas críticas disponibles
▶️ https://t.co/cVRjLOCSh4 pic.twitter.com/TlZ7XE1xcL
Updated
UK reports lowest Covid case numbers since mid-December
Another 72,727 cases were reported in the UK on Saturday, the lowest figure for more than a month. The previous low was on 14 December, when only 59,610 positive tests were logged at the start of a spike caused by the Omicron variant.
The figures don’t include Scotland’s case numbers, as figures for new positive PCR cases are not available at the weekend.
It means 16,406,123 positive tests have been registered since the beginning of the pandemic.
Latest government data shows that a further 296 deaths were recorded of people who had a positive Covid test within 28 days of dying.
I’m Harry Taylor, and I’ll be bringing you the latest coronavirus updates from the UK and around the world for the rest of tonight.
If you have any comments, tips or suggestions - drop me an email or get in touch via Twitter where my DMs are open.
Updated
Summary
Below is a roundup of all the latest Covid news from around the world:
- Scotland has recorded 18 coronavirus-linked deaths and 6,679 new cases in the past 24 hours, according to recent figures. It means the death toll under this measurement, of people who tested positive for the virus in the previous 28 days, has risen to 10,309.
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Hungary’s daily tally of new Covid-19 cases could reach 30,000 in the next one or two weeks, up from about 20,000 this week, a government minister said on Saturday. Miklos Kasler, the minister for human resources, blamed the Omicron variant for the rise, Reuters reports.
- Japan logged 84,936 daily coronavirus infections on Saturday, a new record for a fifth consecutive day, as Omicron continues to spread across the country. The number has more than tripled from two weeks ago, according to the Kyodo News agency.
- Austria will begin easing Covid-19 related restrictions next week, the chancellor, Karl Nehammer, told a news conference on Saturday, allowing shops and restaurants to remain open longer and easing restriction on unvaccinated people.
- Russia reported more than 100,000 daily coronavirus cases for the first time on Saturday as the country weathers a surge of infections driven by Omicron. A government Covid-19 portal registered 113,122 new cases over 24 hours, nearly double the number of daily infections just a week ago.
- New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has gone into self-isolation until Tuesday after being deemed a close contact of a person who tested positive for Covid-19, the government said.
Updated
Trucks rolled into Canada’s capital, Ottawa, on Saturday to stage what police say will be a massive protest against the prime minister Justin Trudeau’s Covid-19 vaccine mandates in front of parliament on a frigid winter day.
The so-called “Freedom Convoy” – coming from east and west – started out as a rally against a vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers, but has turned into a demonstration against alleged government overreach during the pandemic, with a strong anti-vaccination streak.
Updated
Portuguese election organisers were taking extra safety precautions on Saturday after the government decided to allow voters who are infected with the coronavirus to leave isolation and cast ballots in person along with everyone else.
With around a tenth of Portugal’s 10 million-strong population thought to be isolating due to Covid-19, the government decided last week to lift restrictions for Sunday’s vote.
In a press conference on Saturday, the electoral commission said: “All conditions have been met for the vote to take place in absolute safety.”
Like many European countries, Portugal is experiencing record-setting infections, although widespread vaccination has kept deaths and hospitalisations lower than in earlier waves.
Authorities have asked people with Covid to vote between 6pm and 7pm, but the time recommendation is not mandatory. There will be no designated areas for infected voters.
Staff setting up a polling station at an vehicle repair shop in the Lisbon parish of Santo Antonio were placing stickers on the floor on Saturday to encourage social distancing. Voters will receive a face mask before they enter.
Updated
Scotland has recorded 18 coronavirus-linked deaths and 6,679 new cases in the past 24 hours, according to recent figures.
It means the death toll under this measurement, of people who tested positive for the virus in the previous 28 days, has risen to 10,309.
There were 1,291 people in hospital on Friday with recently confirmed Covid-19, down 11 on the day before, with 35 in intensive care, up three.
So far 4,410,290 people have received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination, while 4,122,152 have received their second dose, and 3,286,355 have received a third dose or booster, according to figures published by the Scottish Government on Friday.
Thanks for following the Guardian’s coronavirus live feed, bringing you the latest Covid-19 news from around the world.
If you have any questions, comments or news tips then contact me on Twitter, Instagram or by email.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
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Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
The inquiry into Downing Street parties could be shared with Boris Johnson as soon as this weekend as cross-party demands mount for the report to be published in its entirety after an intervention by Scotland Yard.
The timeline for the publication of the long-awaited report by the senior civil servant Sue Gray on alleged lockdown breaches at Downing Street and Whitehall was thrown into question this week when the Metropolitan police announced on Tuesday that a criminal investigation had been launched.
Scotland Yard provoked outrage by demanding that references to matters it was examining be removed from the report. MPs labelled the force, which is investigating possible breaches punishable by fixed-penalty notices, “a broken organisation”.
Updated
Hungary’s daily tally of new Covid-19 cases could reach 30,000 in the next one or two weeks, up from about 20,000 this week, a government minister said on Saturday.
Miklos Kasler, the minister for human resources, blamed the Omicron variant for the rise, Reuters reports.
In a Facebook video, he said the variant was causing less severe illness, but the third of Hungarians not vaccinated were at higher risk.
Just over 6 million of the country’s 10 million people have received at least two shots, and nearly 3.6 million have also received a booster, but the country’s vaccination rate lags western European levels.
Hungary is now offering shots to anyone, without people needing to register in advance, as well as booster shots to children aged 12-17.
The government announced in mid-January that a fourth Covid-19 booster shot was available should people want one, after they have had a consultation with a doctor.
Hungary has made booster shots mandatory for healthcare workers, and vaccinations mandatory for all teachers. Protective masks have been required in most indoor places since late November.
Updated
London’s Metropolitan police have been “vacillating” about alleged Downing Street lockdown parties in the face of major public concern, a former attorney general has said.
Lord Morris of Aberavon was commenting on Scotland Yard’s intervention regarding the publication of Sue Gray’s inquiry report on “partygate” over concerns that its contents may affect a police investigation into possible lockdown breaches.
Morris told the PA news agency:
I am dismayed with the vacillation of the Metropolitan police. Surely it is in the public interest that major concerns over events in Downing Street be investigated and reported on. Any prejudice that might result in fines would be a disproportionate concern.
The Met has asked Gray, a senior civil servant, to make only “minimal reference” in her report to No 10 events that are subject to a criminal investigation, buying more time for Boris Johnson as he faces a threat to his leadership.
Updated
Japan logged 84,936 daily coronavirus infections on Saturday, a new record for the fifth consecutive day, as the Omicron variant continues to spread across the country.
The number has more than tripled from two weeks ago, according to the Kyodo News agency.
The Osaka prefecture reported a record 10,383 casesand Tokyo 17,433, slightly down from Friday’s record of 17,631.
Updated
A backbench Tory MP who has been critical of the government’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal has become the first to announce he intends to stand for leader if Boris Johnson is voted out.
The news comes as the prime minister could finally get sight of the highly anticipated “partygate” inquiry report from the senior civil servant Sue Gray as early as this weekend, after police insisted they had not delayed its publication.
No 10 had still not received a copy of the report into possible lockdown breaches in Downing Street and Whitehall on Saturday morning. It is widely believed that either the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, or the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, are frontrunners to win the top job if Johnson is ousted.
But the Daily Mail reported on Friday that centrist Tories are backing the former soldier Tom Tugendhat. The newspaper said some Conservative MPs believed the chair of the foreign affairs committee ( represented the “best chance for a fresh start”.
The MP for Tonbridge and Malling told Times Radio on Saturday: “I think I’m making it pretty clear that I think that it’s up to all of us to put ourselves forward. And it’s up to the electorate, in the first case parliamentary colleagues, and in the second case the party, to choose.
“I think it’s a position of absolute integrity to say that of course you should offer yourself to the electorate if you think you can do it. Of course you should talk to colleagues and see if you can get a group together, and if you can get a group together you should go for it.
“Now I haven’t been canvassing support so I don’t know if I’d be able to get the first group together – you’ve got to get a group first. But if you could, of course you should have a go.”
Updated
Austria will begin easing Covid-19 related restrictions next week, the chancellor, Karl Nehammer, told a news conference on Saturday, allowing shops and restaurants to remain open longer and easing restriction on unvaccinated people.
The moves come as the Omicron variant leads to reduced hospital admissions despite high infection numbers.
Austria will extend the maximum permitted opening hours of restaurants and shops until midnight from 5 February, and will increase the number of people able to participate in events from 25 to 50, Nehammer said.
“The good thing in spite of everything in this difficult situation – the hospital numbers are at a good level, the intensive care beds, I think it’s fair to say, are at a very good level,” he said.
Updated
Russia reported more than 100,000 daily coronavirus cases for the first time on Saturday as the country weathers a surge of infections driven by the Omicron variant.
A government Covid-19 portal registered 113,122 new cases over 24 hours, nearly double the number of daily infections just a week ago.
The number of cases across Russia continues to rise sharply, with Omicron accounting for the majority.
Since a brief, strict national lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic, Russia has held back on curbs, hoping instead to protect its struggling economy. But with four vaccines widely available for months, Russians remain reluctant to take them up. Just under half of the population is fully vaccinated.
The Russian government has reported 330,111 deaths from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, the highest death toll in Europe. The figure is contradicted, however, by the statistics agency Rosstat, which counts Covid deaths under a broader definition and says the overall toll is close to double the official number.
Updated
An interesting article by Eric Berger in St Louis, US. He writes about parents and doctors who think children under five are being left behind in the Covid vaccine race.
Updated
New Zealand prime minister is in isolation
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has gone into self-isolation until Tuesday after being deemed a close contact of a person who tested positive for Covid-19, the government said.
The exposure took place on 22 January during a flight to Auckland from the town of Kerikeri, the government said on Saturday, adding that the result of whole genome sequencing of a sample from the infected person was expected on Sunday. That would show if the infection was caused by the Omicron variant, it said.
Ardern was asymptomatic and feeling well, the statement added. She will be tested on Sunday and is in isolation in line with the health ministry’s directives. The governor-general and members of her staff who were also on the flight are following the same isolation procedure.
Updated
In the UK, a heavily redacted report by the senior civil servant Sue Gray on parties at Downing Street will be published imminently, the Guardian understands.
It comes after Scotland Yard provoked fury and confusion by revealing it had demanded key details of the worst offending be removed. MPs labelled the Metropolitan police a broken organisation after the force admitted it had asked Gray to make “minimal reference” in her inquiry report to matters its officers were now investigating.
The Met, battered by criticism, insisted it needed to protect the integrity of its investigation.
Updated
Ukraine registered a record daily high of 37,351 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Saturday. The previous high of 34,408 cases was a day earlier. Ministry data showed 149 new related deaths, putting the total above 100,000. Ukraine’s tally of infections in the pandemic stands at 4.02 million, with 100,031 deaths.
Updated
Russia’s daily coronavirus cases exceeded 100,000 on Saturday for the first time since the pandemic began, the coronavirus taskforce said. The country confirmed 113,122 new daily infections, setting a record high for a ninth consecutive day, which the authorities blame on the spread of the Omicron variant.
Russia’s coronavirus task force said 668 deaths had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, after Russia’s coronavirus death toll exceeded 700,000 on Friday.
Updated
Indonesia is bracing for a third wave of Covid-19 infections as the Omicron variant drives a surge in new cases, health authorities and experts said on Saturday.
The country reported 9,905 new infections and seven deaths on Friday in the latest 24-hour period. It was the highest daily caseload since August last year when the country was struggling to contain a Delta-driven wave.
Indonesia had recovered from last year’s spike in cases and deaths that was among the worst in the region, and daily infections had fallen to about 200 by December. But cases are rising again just weeks after the country reported its first local Omicron case.
The health minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, said the next few months would be critical because Omicron was spreading “rapidly and massively”.
“Its upsurge will be extremely fast ... We will see a sharp rise in the near future,” he told a news conference on Friday, adding that the current wave would probably peak at the end of February or in early March.
Updated
China's Olympic Covid cases reach 36
Daily Covid-19 infections among athletes and team officials at the Beijing Winter Olympics athletes jumped to 19 on Friday from two a day earlier, as Games organisers warned of more cases in coming days.
Including the athletes and officials, 36 Games-related personnel were found to be infected – 29 when they arrived at the Beijing airport and seven already in the “closed loop” bubble that separates event personnel from the public, the organising committee said in a statement on Saturday.
“We are now just going through the peak period of people arriving in China and therefore we expect to see the highest numbers at this stage,” the Games’ medical chief, Brian McCloskey, told a news conference. Organisers were confident in their system of Covid prevention and infections were unlikely to leak out into the public, McCloskey said.
Cases among athletes and team officials exceeded those for “other stakeholders”, including media, sponsors and staff, for the first time since China started releasing daily numbers of Olympics-related coronavirus cases on 23 January, according to a Reuters tally of previous statements.
“It’s annoying that every morning you need to get up a little earlier specially to get a PCR test. I think that in a few days it will be like brushing your teeth,” the Russian hockey player Anton Slepyshev told RIA news agency. “Everyone is concerned that the test result will suddenly turn out to be positive. But the reality is such that we are living with Covid. We accept all the risks and fears,” he said.
The Games are to run from Friday to 20 February, its bubble sealed off from the rest of China, where the government’s zero-tolerance Covid policy has all but shut the country’s border to international arrivals.
Updated
The Argentinian singer-songwriter Diego Verdaguer, whose romantic hits such as Corazón de papel, Yo te amo and Volveré sold almost 50m copies, has died of complications from Covid-19, his family said. He was 70.
The naturalized Mexican-Argentinian musician, who was married to the singer Amanda Miguel, died on Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles, his daughter Ana Victoria said in a statement released by Diam Music, Verdaguer’s record company.
“With absolute sadness, I regret to inform his fans and friends that today my father left his beautiful body to continue his path and creativity in another form of eternal life,” said his daughter. “My mother, I and the whole family are immersed in this pain, so we appreciate your understanding in these difficult times.”
The statement was also published on the Twitter account of Amanda Miguel, with the hashtag #restinpeace along with emojis of a pair of her hands palm to palm and a white heart.
Updated
The Tory MP Adam Holloway defended Boris Johnson over lockdown-breaking party allegations.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This is a really remarkable guy who got an 80-seat majority and I believed him when he said he didn’t know it was a party.
“He’s the PM of a nuclear-armed state, operating in a Downing Street that at the time was [on] a war footing, with 300-plus passholders virtually working, you know, 24/7.
“I mean, he’s not the office manager. And if he’s asked to go outside and thank some staff, I’m not sure what the crime is there. I mean, if I’d gone out and I’d seen people with glasses of wine, yeah, I would have sent them packing back inside. That was a mistake.”
Updated
Long Covid study and lung abnormalities
Researchers have discovered abnormalities in the lungs of long Covid patients who have breathlessness that cannot be detected with routine tests.
The Explain study uses xenon, an odourless, colourless, tasteless and chemically non-reactive gas, to investigate possible lung damage in the patients who have not been admitted to hospital but continue to experience the symptom.
The initial results of the study suggest there is significantly impaired gas transfer from the lungs to the bloodstream in the long Covid patients despite other tests – including CT scans – coming back as normal.
The study’s chief investigator, Fergus Gleeson, a professor of radiology at the University of Oxford and consultant radiologist at Oxford university hospitals NHS foundation trust, said: “We knew from our post-hospital Covid study that xenon could detect abnormalities when the CT scan and other lung function tests are normal.”
Updated
In China, a total of 36 new Covid-19 infected were detected among Olympic Games-related personnel on 28 January, the organising committee of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games said on Saturday.
Nineteen were either athletes or team officials who tested positive after arriving at the airport on Friday. A notice on the Games’ official website said 29 were found among new airport arrivals, while seven were among those already in the “closed loop” bubble that separates event personnel from the public.
Updated
Welcome to the coronavirus live feed, with the latest news from around the globe on Covid-19. If you have any questions, comments or news tips to send over then please contact me using the below platforms.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
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Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
